62 years ago tonight, the man who would become what I consider one of the most interesting presidents of the United States was in a bind. He was the VP on the ticket with the war hero Eisenhower, and although they both were running on a staunch anti-corruption platform, the press was running rumors that he had an offline account he was siphoning money from. It wasnt illegal, it just looked bad. Here was upstart young turk Richard M. Nixon, anti-corruption hero, taking and using funds on the side? What was the campaign going to do? Many thought it was the end of his (and Eisenhowers) political career. So Nixon did something that had never been done before: he bypassed the press and went straight to the American people. He gave a live speech. In it, he described his humble background, how he and his wife scraped to make ends meet. He briefly admitted having and using the money and started talking about some things that some folks might think were wrong but he didnt feel that way. He talked about how his daughter was given a little dog checkers He said he wasnt giving it up, no matter what people thought. It was a stroke of political genius. Instantly millions of people wrote letters in support of his actions. Politicians in the other party went berserko. How could Nixon skate out from using a slush fund by telling a story about his kids dog? But many blue collar and poor people understood what Nixon was saying. Some experts say the folks he won with the famous Checkers Speech stayed with him through the rest of his career. You can judge for yourself if youve got 30 minutes. To this day, seemingly normal people will go just a bit crazy at the mention of Nixons name. He recorded all his Oval Office communications, making his administration a gold mine for historians. A very dark, interesting, and complex guy. https://youtube/watch?v=JpWwgwytdzk
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 23:59:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015